Bedford C take the derby spoils

 Bedford C   Bedford D
BoardNameGradeScoreScoreNameGrade
1Robert S Walker175801Steve C Pike1840
2Richard McMorran165310Evan Lewis1746
3Peter S Gill17280.50.5Theo Jenkins1576
4Callum T Shields166010Lucian Cox1537
5Oscar Tucker1500e10George Griffiths1383
  3.5 1.5 
Played: 18/12/21     

Peter’s take on the proceedings:-

Twenty months or so after the Club’s last Beds League Match we started a new season with C versus D – with debuts for no less than 3 new members.
One of those, Oscar, who does not even have a rating yet, was first to finish. Though part of the D team squad he agreed to turn out for the C Team on Board 5. When I first saw the game Oscar was a pawn up, then George dropped a Knight, and Oscar quickly cleaned up. 

I had not planned to play but with no sight of our Board 3 after more than 10 minutes I stepped in to play another new member, Theo.  I really struggled to remember book moves and as Theo seemed to know what he was doing I lost even more time. However, with the game about level he allowed me to mess up his Kingside pawns, and gain a sufficient small advantage to make an offer he couldn’t sensibly refuse.

On Board 2 Evan for the D Team was up against Richard (McMorran) – never likely to be an easy first match! After Richard had won an early exchange Evan got some pressure with Queen and Bishop on the long white diagonal, but it was not enough and Richard bagged the point.

Callum, who we all just about remembered after not seeing him since the first lockdown, got a big centre against Lucian, on Board 4, which he was eventually able to convert for a win.

Steve (Pike) on Top board got his rooks onto Robert’s second rank. I think Robert managed  to win an exchange but only at the expense of Steve’s massive pair of passed queenside pawns (I think I dodged a bullet! – see below, Ed).

So 3.5 to 1.5 to the C team. When we next play in March it may well be a different story!